Bulls refuse to back down on salary cap

The ninth summer Super League season was officially launched at Old Trafford yesterday, but it is a think-tank of club executives starting in Harrogate tonight that holds far greater significance for the future of the competition.

The salary cap is at the top of their agenda, with the majority in favour of a reduction from the limit of £1.8m - but Chris Caisley, the Bradford Bulls chairman who has pledged to take legal action against any attempt to lower the cap, will not be attending.

Caisley insisted yesterday he will be missing for practical reasons rather than on principle. "We've got our first game of the season against Wigan at Odsal on Friday and that's the only reason we won't be going."

But there is no sign that Bradford will be backing down, especially after their World Club Challenge win against Penrith. "You couldn't have a much better argument against lowering the salary cap than our performance against Penrith," he said. "If we expect our clubs to compete against the Aussies, then we can't carry on dumbing down to the lowest common denominator.

"Some people in the game want the Super League to be run like Animal Farm, with this idea that everybody can have exactly the same standards as everybody else. But things weren't very equal at the end of Animal Farm. It's just potty."

However Caisley and Wigan's chairman Maurice Lindsay - also fiercely opposed to any reduction but who will attend - have an uphill struggle with even Leeds, one of their natural allies, set to vote in favour of change.

Gary Hetherington, the Rhinos' chief executive, believes that a tighter cap has worked in Australia's National Rugby League and rugby union's Premiership. "Their salary caps are much closer to the amount of central funding they receive from their TV deals," he said. "With the Super League our cap is £1.8m but we only receive £800,000 from TV, and that leads to inequalities in the competition. That is the main argument for setting our cap lower.

"But where I agree with Chris is that the other clubs can't have a free ride, and we've also got to make demands of them by introducing a minimum level for salary payments."

The RFL's executive chairman Richard Lewis, meanwhile, confirmed that he hopes to conclude an agreement "in the coming days" for the BBC to show Super League highlights this season. Sky, which has agreed a £53m five-year deal for exclusive live rights, also plans to televise the varsity match on March 3.